Growing South-South and Triangular Cooperation

In the today's development cooperation architecture, South-South Cooperation (SSC) and Triangular Cooperation (TrC) is attracting an increased attention as a complement to traditional North-South Cooperation. The importance of SSC/TrC has been emphasized in various international fora : UN Global South-South Development Expo (since 2008), Development Cooperation Forum (since 2008), Busan High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness (2011) and High-Level Meeting of the Global Partnership for Effective Development Cooperation (April 2014), Policy Dialogue on Triangular Co-operation (2013), and High-level Meetings on Country-led Knowledge Hubs (2012 and 2014) . In addition, SSC/TrC are identified as crucial means of implementation also in discussions on Post 2015 Development Agenda.

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Regional Cooperation for Chagas Disease control in Central America

In this context, JICA has been playing an important role in the promotion and development of SSC/TrC as a pioneer of this field.

What are "South-South Cooperation" and "Triangular Cooperation"?

According to the "Framework of operational guidelines on United Nations support to South-South and triangular cooperation: Note by the Secretary-General" (external link) submitted to the High-level Committee on South-South

Cooperation in April 2012, "South-South Cooperation" and "Triangular Cooperation" can be defined as follows:

  • "South-South Cooperation": a process whereby two or more developing countries pursue their individual and/or shared national capacity development objectives through exchanges of knowledge, skills, resources and technical know-how, and through regional and interregional collective actions, including partnerships involving Governments, regional organizations, civil society, academia and the private sector, for their individual and/or mutual benefit within and across regions.
  • "Triangular Cooperation": Triangular cooperation involves Southern-driven partnerships between two or more developing countries supported by a developed country(ies)/or multilateral organization(s) to implement development cooperation programs and projects.

What South-South and Triangular Cooperation mean to JICA

After joining the Colombo Plan 1954, Japan began providing technical assistance while it was still undergoing postwar reconstruction and receiving financial assistance from other donor countries. Japan was an ex-recipient country with experience of being "a provider of SSC."

JICA considers that SSC/TrC are effective in 1) disseminating successful efforts including those achieved through Japan's cooperation, 2) contributing to the promotion of regional and global cooperation, and 3) complementing and supplementing bilateral cooperation with the knowledge and experience of developing countries to achieve development results.

Partnership Program

The Partnership Program (PP) is a comprehensive framework established between the Japanese government and the government of a pivotal country to jointly support the development endeavors of developing countries and regions. Under this framework, JICA, in collaboration with the partner country, dispatches and receives personnel and provides other forms of cooperation including seminars in a comprehensive and systematic manner.

To date, Japan has concluded PPs or Technical Cooperation agreements similar to PPs with 12 countries (Thailand, Singapore, Egypt, Tunisia, Chile, Brazil, Argentina, Philippines, Mexico, Morocco, Indonesia and Jordan).

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Partnership between Chile and Japan in Disaster Risk Management in Latin America and the Caribbean

Champions in South-South and Triangular Cooperation

In addition to implementation of its TrC, JICA has been contributing to promotion and innovation of SSC/TrC through research and advocacy. JICA Research Institute has conducted several research projects in these fields and published the documents. Furthermore, JICA has supported international fora of this theme like the UN Global South-South Development Expo annually organized by the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation and the High Level Meetings for Country-led Knowledge Hub supported by World Bank. Appreciated these multiple efforts, JICA received SSC Award in Global South-South Development EXPO 2012.

(The Global South-South Development Expo site Link (external link) )

(Recent Publications by JICA Research Institute)